Context: Over the past few seasons, events have been filling up earlier and earlier. For example, a national tournament was filled within 20 minutes of opening registration. In many cases, HOCs take on more athletes than they can reasonably accommodate. This leads to delayed match times. It is not uncommon for matches being played well past midnight and then resuming at 8 am the following morning. All of this leads to events not keeping with excellent standards.
Additionally, Badminton has been the rare sport in which anyone can participate at the highest level of competition with minimal or no qualification (no merit). This has led to events in which athletes are playing matches way out of their range of skills (either too easy or too difficult).
It should be noted that both conditions aforementioned exist at the Provincial level as well.
To encourage more meaningful competition, Badminton Canada has recently introduced (August 27, 2024) a ‘merit’ based entry system features of which are as follows:
(1) There is a clear grid in Appendix E (page 93) of the General Competition Regulations) that states how many entrants per age group and gender will qualify based on the number of courts/hours a facility has available.
(2) The entrants are based on the national ranking system.
(3) The national ranking system has been modified to reflect the same number of points regardless of age category.
(4) Badminton Canada has removed Consolation events.
Badminton BC is following the same sort of system but with slight changes to reflect the subculture of British Columbia:
(a) The BBC system has the same number of male and females allowed per age category.
(b) BBC will also use the ranking system for entrants into various events.
(c) BBC will include some consolation events but pending time available may have to choose between singles and doubles.
For the first tournament of the season, VLTBC Junior A, Badminton BC has gone with the following:
• 16 entrants in both singles, 8 in all doubles events
• Consolations as time allows.